for people who care about the West

Tribe close to sharing federal bison refuge

Unless Congress derails a deal that took years to
negotiate, on March 15, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
will take over 10 of the 19 jobs at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s National Bison Range Complex. And the tribes will
begin sharing management of 26,000 federal acres north of Missoula,
where hundreds of bison and crowds of waterfowl live.

The
deal comes under a 1994 law that allows tribes more say on federal
lands where they had a historical interest (HCN, 7/7/03: Back on
the range?). Many current and former agency officials worry about
how the arrangement will work out. "It’s an attack on the
integrity of the national wildlife refuge system," says Gene
Hocutt, a retired refuge manager who’s with Public Employees
for Environmental Responsibility. He says it’s part of the
Bush administration’s campaign to privatize many federal
responsibilities.

But the Salish and Kootenai have a good
record of managing their wildlife. Clayton Matt, head of the
tribes’ natural resources department, says sharing the bison
complex "is entirely doable." The government would still control
the top jobs; the tribal jobs would be in biology, tourism and
maintenance.

Because some positions at the complex are
vacant, only six federal employees would be affected, and they
could keep their federal benefits while working for the tribe, or
apply for other federal jobs. The agency would still pay the entire
cost of running the refuge until September 2006, at which point the
arrangement could be canceled, adjusted or renewed.